David and Goliath in Oblivion

by
Kim Petersen

Dissident Voice

April
5, 2003

Trying
to get an accurate assessment of what is going on Iraq can be daunting for many
people. A healthy dose of skepticism is best, especially when taking in
mainstream media representations of the aggression. This is not to say that
mainstream media should be disregarded but considered as part of a wider
spectrum. This is perhaps best done by taking in many different sources of
information, sifting by reasoned analysis, and coherently tying together the
remaining shards of information.

The Homefront

Mina
Hamilton writes that life in New York seemingly goes on as normal. Iraq need
not concern people; it can be confined to oblivion. But some people of
conscience will feel the twinges of unease at the incongruity of their
relatively tranquil life when pondering the fate of Iraqis faced with the
lethality of US-UK munitions. (1) Despite heavy-handed
establishment tactics the anti-wars protests continue in the US. Conscientious
objectors are obeying their conscience in small but growing numbers. (2) Anti-war veterans press on against derision and political
ignorance. (3)

Iraq: Violence and Insouciance

The
violence in Iraq is increasingly bloodier. It gets to some soldiers. Mark
Franchetti reported on a tumultuous battle near a bridge to Nasriya. He wrote
of hysteria, panic, confusion, despair, and fear. One soldier broke down at the
death of a baby girl: "’Did you see all that?" he asked, his eyes
filled with tears. "Did you see that little baby girl? I carried her body
and buried it as best I could but I had no time. It really gets to me to see
children being killed like this, but we had no choice.’" (4)

For
Corporal Dupre it was the signal for revenge: "’The Iraqis are sick people
and we are the chemotherapy. I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I
get hold of a friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill
him.’" Vengeance saw more civilians die including another little girl. (5)

The
violence doesn’t seem to faze some fighter pilots. Those flying high above the
fray, visually protected from the carnage of their cargo, appear cocksure and
nonchalant. "’We know we're killing people," said Lt. Stan Wilson,
33, who enlisted in the Navy at 18, left to attend college and then rejoined to
become a pilot. "We don't talk about it, don't worry about it. I don't
know how this sounds, but we're more selfish than that. I worry about my car
payments; the other guys worry about their girlfriends and wives.’" (6)

Human
carnage from their bombing runs was pushed to the fringes of consciousness.
Responsibility was deflected with the discredited Nazi defense of just
following orders. The fighter pilots have no problems justifying their being on
the delivering end of death. Lt. Stephan Dean simply said: "’I have faith
in the way we're doing things.’" (7) It is a
terrorism of the skies. This article of faith is eerily similar to the
motivations attributed to many suicide bombers. “These are people who believe
in a certain cause and are willing to die for it,” spoke Ziad Abu-Amr a
Palestinian expert on radical Islam. (8)

The
Red Cross reports now about a 100 casualties a day are entering hospitals in
Baghdad. (9) Despite admissions from those unleashing the
violence, the British and American war spinners steadfastly deny culpability
for civilian deaths. The favored tactic is to blame everything possible on
President Saddam Hussein.

The
so-called coalition admits to many self-inflicted casualties (certainly they
don’t want to grant the Iraqi forces any fighting prowess) but seem intent on
perpetuating the view that they could hardly hit and kill Iraqi civilians.
Iraqi civilian killings are attributed either to Iraqi “friendly fire” or more
sinisterly, deliberately friendly fire, designed to be blamed on US-UK forces
and whip up anti-war sentiment in the sensitive western public opinion. The US
doesn’t have a particularly good record with regard to civilian atrocities. In
1991 the Amriya bomb shelter turned out to be a death trap for 403 Iraqi
civilians when targeted by the US. The US falsely claimed it to be a military
command center.

Serial
numbers recovered from the shrapnel by journalist Robert Fisk, has already
provided credible evidence that the marketplace massacre of 62 civilians was
most likely caused by a US Harm anti-radar missile. The US, true-to-form,
suggested an Iraqi plant. (10) British Foreign Minister
Geoffrey Hoon greeted the disclosure with skepticism in lieu of corroborating
evidence. The Independent backed up Mr. Fisk and recalled how their reporter
had been subsequently found correct in a similar incident in Yugoslavia, which
NATO eventually owed up to, whereas Mr. Hoon’s record is “characterised by
exaggeration, half-truth and backtracking.” (11)

Further
evidence of the so-called coalition’s spurious pretence to care for Iraqi
civilian life is furnished by the use of indiscriminate ordnance. Mr. Hoon in a
change of tact confessed to British use of the “necessary evil,” cluster bombs.
(12) Cluster bombs kill over a wide area by means of
hundreds of bomblets releasing a fury of razor sharp shrapnel -- in effect
cutting their victims up. Menacingly a significant percentage of unexploded
cluster bombs become de facto landmines, lying on the landscape in the guise of
innocuous objects or food rations. It defies commonsense that a country could
plead respect for civilian life and simultaneously use such a random bomb. The
mounting civilian casualties put the lie to such US-UK declamations.

David and Goliath

The
violence seems destined for urban fighting in Baghdad. Civilian casualties will
be nigh impossible to avoid.

The
Iraq fighters had little choice. Out in the open they were sure to be wiped
out. It is almost a classic David and Goliath scenario. Almost. It even more
skewed as a mismatch. The biblical David fought Goliath one-to-one; he was not
up against a coalition. David fought with his weapon of choice but Iraq is in
fact a nation much weakened by years of disarmament and a ravaged economy: a
David disarmed of his sling.